


Mortal Eyes

by KrillMeNow



Category: No Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 16:47:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8335012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrillMeNow/pseuds/KrillMeNow
Summary: A fae of the Unseelie Court is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime, but is stopped in her tracks when she realizes just who her target is.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally this was for a Creative Writing class I'm in, but I figured I could easily post it here as well, so here it is? I don't know.

Khiiral had been lost in her training when her commander entered the room. Lost in the training, lost in the false reality of battle and bloodshed and combat. Lost in the imaginary enemies carrying their deadly weapons, likely soaked in poison beforehand. She ducked, swiped, parried and whirled in a cyclone of damage and death. She had been so consumed in this that she hadn't noticed the commander enter and lean on the heavily marred wall of the training center. She didn't notice the commander watch her in her whirlwind of death and destruction. She didn't notice the commander until he called out her name, full of formality and seriousness. "Wrenlath."

She froze in place, and with inhuman grace shifted into a position of attention. "Yes sir." Khiiral squared off her shoulders and followed the commander with her eyes as he stalked around her. 

"I can see why you're so highly recommended for this job. From the way you train I can imagine how decent of a fighter you must be." 

Khiiral almost asked what he meant by 'this job' but decided against it. To question the commander would practically be suicide on her part. "Thank you sir. I certainly hope I am to your standards."

The commander stopped in front of Khiiral. His eyes raked down her form, taking in the heavy armor and different weapons strapped to it. "You've been assigned a new mission, and need to be briefed for it. Follow me soldier." The commander then turned to leave, trusting that Khiiral would follow as she'd been told to.

And Khiiral did follow. Despite her own ranking, it would be a very bad idea not to follow direct orders of the commander. She followed the commander down winding hallways until they stopped in front of a door, loud and violent arguing spewing from the inside. The commander sighed and pushed open the door. Immediately the room was silent. In the room were various states of different arguments. On one side of the room, a fae had another fae pinned to the wall with a dagger held at their neck. On the other side two other fae were already nursing the wounds of their own fight. The commander snapped and pointed at the table, sending the other fae tripping over themselves and stumbling to sit as quickly as they could.

The commander jerked his head to tell Khiiral to move inside, and she followed his orders. She stood at the head of the table, unsure whether she should sit down or not. The commander gently closed the door, the soft click of the lock heard over the unbearable silence. It took three steps for the commander to stand next to Khiiral. In those three steps, the fae snapped up to sit with near perfect posture, bodies facing the table, and heads turned toward the commander. For now, Khiiral was invisible. 

Clearing his throat, the commander began to speak. "As suggested by those here, I took the liberty to grab Wrenlath from the training room to debrief them for their mission. After observing them train, it is clear that the best candidate was chosen, despite rank." The commander sat in a chair that seemed almost too small for his bulky frame. "Wrenlath, take a seat."

Khiiral perched herself carefully on a chair beside the commander. 

The commander studied Khiiral's face carefully as he spoke. "I am sure you are wondering why you've been brought here." Khiiral nodded slowly. "As you may have guessed from earlier, we have a new assignment for you. Unlike your previous missions, you have no option of failing this job. Doing so will result in not only your execution, but the fall of the Unseelie Court. However, I cannot tell you any further details until you accept the mission. Weigh your choices carefully."

Khiiral did indeed weigh her choices. Failing would bring her doom, and prove herself a fool after so long of building her reputation. Succeeding would bring glory and honor from the sounds of it. Succeeding would bring her the reputation she'd wanted for so long. But was it worth the risk? Inside her power hungry conscious a voice whispered to her, 'Yes, accept the mission'.

"I'll do it," Khiiral answered as suddenly as the thought came to her. "I'll take the mission."

The commander nodded slightly. "Good. You will be quite the asset to us in this situation." He cleared his throat for a moment before continuing. "The heir of the Seelie fae has found a new human to court with. As you know, the heir proceeding to court with a human would result in a turning of the courts. The Unseelie court would no longer be in power."

Khiiral nodded slowly. One of the other fae added on to what the commander had been saying. "We need you to eliminate the threat to our court. It has been a successful reign so far, and the queen would not take kindly to it ending so soon."

"To be clear, you'd like me to eliminate the human, yes?" Khiiral aimed her question at the fae who had just spoken, not daring to ask the commander directly.

The commander answered, "Yes. And you have no other choice but to do so, seeing as information such as this leaking into the rest of the court could be quite harmful." The response was laced with contained venom, a threat Khiiral identified nearly immediately. 

"I will take special care to see to it that the human is dead within the week." 

The commander raised an eyebrow, and slid a slim folder with papers- presumably information about the target- over to Khiiral. "A bold claim seeing as the Seelie fae will likely want to see their new human soon-to-be companion."

Khiiral answered in a clipped way, to keep herself from saying something she'd regret. "I'm sure I can handle a few Seelie fae as well."

"Very well. You're dismissed. I'd recommend scouting out the area before acting too quickly. We don't want too much of a fuss in the mortal realm just yet." The commander smiled wolfishly. 

Khiiral stood and nodded. "Yes sir." She left the room and closed the heavy wooden door behind her. She thought about this new mission as she walked. A human assassination would easier physically. Humans were already so fragile, and to be reserved for the heir of a court was quite taxing on a mortal. But the commander was right in the aspect that the Seelie fae would be swarming around the human both in glamour and out of sight. Her own glamour would have to be quite strong to keep from being recognized. 

She opened the folder. Inside was a picture of a teenage girl, who looked rather plain. Mousy brown hair, round face, rather unextraordinary. Though it was often the plainest of humans that made their way onto the courts. Plain mortals brought little attention, and were that much harder to find. She scanned the information she'd been given for a location. The human was located in a small town. Good. In small towns news spread fast, and a brutal death like the one the human was going to receive would bring panic and discord like nothing else. 

Khiiral left for the Mortal Realm with a grim look on her face. She hated the Mortal Realm. It stunk of the death that faded too fast and was easily replaced. It stunk of false love and petty hate. Mortal emotions were volatile and changing and acrid. They were never permanent, and the ever changing scent often gave Khiiral a nasty headache. She hated the buzz and the iron and steel everything. 

When she arrived she remembered exactly how much she'd hated it. If anything the smell had only gotten worse. The hideous smell of emotions were always worse in the tiny towns. All the mortals knew each other, had those nasty bonds that connected them. Humans were weak, physically and mentally. And the mortals in front of the human's school were even worse. The young ones were always worse. A teenager on a bad day alone was enough to give Khiiral a headache. A whole group of them could drive her insane.

It wasn't hard to spot the human, even with her back turned. There was a swarm of all different Seelie fae around her. While Khiiral kept herself unseen from the other fae, these fae were in plain sight for anyone but the mortals. Khiiral maneuvered herself to a better position, a bit closer to the human. It was almost a shame the human had to die so young, but Khiiral supposed the girl wouldn't have lasted long anyway.

Khiiral brushed through the crowd easily, the mess of Seelie fae only made it easier for her to go unnoticed. The closer she got to the young human, the more fervent the whispers of the Seelie fae got. So many words of how the human would aid their court. It was almost funny to Khiiral- the fact they were so hopeful about something that would be snuffed out as quickly as a candle flame in suffocating winds. She drew a jagged-toothed hunting knife and stepped closer still, running over how she planned to take out the threat. The Unseelie court could make quite the meal out of the panic caused here.

Khiiral threw up a mortal glamour, making herself appear as just another student to both the humans and the Seelie fae. She then grabbed the human firmly by the hair and pulled her up to stand. The human made a slight noise of discomfort and confusion, attempting to turn to see who had forced her to stand. When she saw the hunting knife, a squeak of fear came from her throat and she rushed to back away, but failed, due to the bench she'd been seated on, and Khiiral's stone grip on her hair. Khiiral moved to bring the knife across the human's throat, but froze when she saw the girl's terror struck eyes, wide and about to fill with tears.

The picture Khiiral had been given did the human's eyes no justice. They were the very same as the only human she'd ever courted. The very same shape. The very same color. Even the same fear. The same fear as on that day. That day when she'd returned home to find her beloved being held captive by a bitter fae of her own court. Her beloved had been dead before Khiiral had had the chance to draw her sword. The same fear in her beloved's eyes that day, the same eyes, the same fear- it was here, in this Seelie court bound human. Khiiral dropped both the human and the knife in shock. 

While she still could, Khiiral escaped the crowd, dropping her glamour somewhere along the line. The now growing panic of the crowd made her dizzy as she fled. She felt sick, and her throat burned. They couldn't have known. They couldn't possibly have known. She'd hidden her courtship from everyone. She'd only slipped up in that duel. There was no way that small council would have known about this stupid human. None of them would have understood it anyway.

Khiiral fled back to the Unseelie Court, out of breath and in a panic. She rushed down a hall blindly, anything to get her further away from that human. One of the fae that had been in the room earlier grabbed her by the arm, stopping her in her tracks.

"Khiiral. You're back. How did it go?" The grip on her arm only tightened when Khiiral tried to pull away.

She rushed to answer, wanting to get away. "I- I came back early to plan. The Mortal Realm was giving me a headache and I'd gotten the information I needed."

The fae gave her a strange look but let go of her arm. "Very well. Do not hesitate for too long. We do not know when the Seelie Court will proceed with their plans."

Khiiral nodded in answer before rushing off to an empty room. Right now she couldn't bear to be in her own home. Those eyes had brought back the carefully avoided memories. She needed to stay away from those memories right now. She had to think. She had to finish the job, but she didn't know is she could do it with those eyes staring at her with that fear. Perhaps she could just let the human go? No, they'd execute her. Maybe escaping with the human would work. The human wouldn't trust her. If she could do it indirectly, perhaps it would help. No, the fae of her court would see her as a coward. 

Perhaps if she took care of it while the human slept? It was logical from an unbiased view, and she wouldn't have to see those memory dredging eyes. She would return when the human was asleep, or near asleep. She would have to do eventually anyway, she may as well finish it as soon as she could.

Khiiral paced and went over her plan until just after dusk- thinking it over painstakingly, smoothing out any and all miniscule flaws through logic. Logic was her escape right now. Logic kept her sane and calm and functioning on her feet. However, logic could only get her so far right now. Now she had to act, she had to leave again for the Mortal Realm, she had to get rid of those eyes. Khiiral took a deep breath. It was time to leave again. She would have to face the girl again, there was no way around it.

She left again for the Mortal Realm. The smell wasn't as bad at night. It was mostly a distraction from the real task at hand. This time Khiiral arrived at the human's home, rather than the school. There were no lights on, and it looked almost peaceful. Khiiral could sense the nervous energy emanating from the inside. The human was scared. Khiirals gut twisted and she had to force herself to remember that this human wasn't the same as her beloved. This human was not her beloved.

Khiiral moved her way inside the house. It was sparsely decorated, like they'd just moved in. It wasn't yet a home- just a place to live. She approached the source of the fear, a room closed off with a simple wooden door. Khiiral silently twisted the knob and pushed her way into the room. The human was asleep, but presumably having a nightmare. Normally humans had more diluted emotions while they slept. But a nightmare would explain the intensity of the fear Khiiral had felt from outside. 

She swallowed and moved as carefully as she could across the room, going over the plan yet again in her head quickly. Khiiral had dropped her preferred knife back by the school, so she pulled out a less favored one from its sheath. She stepped closer and took a deep breath. Slowly, Khiiral lifted the knife over the human's chest and forced it down into the girl's heart, closing her eyes and covering the girl's mouth. She twisted the knife in place and winced at the smothered shriek of pain that came from the girl. Khiiral sat with her hand clenched over the girl's mouth until the girl was fully gone. 

Khiiral took the knife from the girl's chest as she stood. She tried looking anywhere but the girl's now still face, but failed as she rested her gaze on the dead human's glazed over eyes. A pang of hurt hit Khiiral, but she didn't move. She'd finished the mission. The Unseelie Court was safe, but it still hurt her to see her beloved's eyes. She stood in this dead mortal's room, blood dripping from her knife into a gathering puddle at her feet, letting the hurt wash over her. It was time she let it.

When Khiiral returned to the Unseelie Court, she was met with congratulations, and news of the Seelie Court being in a panic intense enough to feed nearly the entire court. She accepted the congratulations, but remained modest, until she could slink away into her own home. She supposed there was no point in avoiding it anymore. Her beloved was gone, and it was about time she faced it. It was time to accept it, and try to move on. With her court safely in control, now was the perfect time to.


End file.
